The Discrete Turn: A Reconsideration of Architecture's Ontology

Author: Mollie Claypool
Year: 2018 (in Expanding Fields of Architectural Discourse and Practice, P.E.A.R./UCL Press)
Source type: chapter
Raw file: raw/chapters/claypool-discrete-turn.md

Summary

Claypool documents the "second digital turn" and the emergence of the discrete: an architectural approach informed by mereology (the study of part-to-whole relations) that rethinks architecture's ontology. Where the first digital turn (line/curve/cyberspace, 1990s; Carpo) emphasized continuous form and inert material treated by idealizing simulation, the discrete treats architectural parts as combinable data assembled via digital fabrication — a more participatory, open-ended, and sociopolitical alternative. She charts the shift through projects (Morel, Retsin & Bloch, Jiménez García, UCL robotic fabrication) toward a "discrete turn."

Key Claims

• First vs. second digital turn: the shift is "from emphasising process over formal appearance, from discontinuity to continuity between the virtual and physical," from analogue/traditional to digital/agile systems of construction, and "from understanding matter as inert to understanding it as active."
• Discreteness as mereology: "The discrete is an architectural approach informed by mereology ... that completely rethinks the role of the digital in architecture, in terms of tectonics, space, materiality and environment." It takes a critical position against the first digital turn: "architecture itself — its parts, assembly, tectonics, materials — also needs to be digital." Parts are like 1s and 0s / Lego — combinable in "multiple but finite orientations" across scales.
• Against homogeneity and post-rationalization: architectonic elements (e.g. brick in Kahn; ZHA's post-rationalized complex geometry) have been treated as homogeneous/inert matter forced into idealized form; the discrete treats matter as active and parts as distinct, "self-similar" elements.
• Object-oriented design and fabrication: 3D-modelling software (BIM) and digital fabrication (CNC, 3D printing, robotics) dissolve the difference between drawing and building, enabling an ontology of architecture that is "adaptable, flexible, changeable, in real time or throughout a longer life cycle."
• Sociopolitical claim: discrete architecture is "a more accessible, versatile, open-ended and participatory approach to architecture" (with Retsin and Sanchez).
• Exemplary projects: Morel's recursive lattice (continuity + discreteness in material efficiency); Retsin & Bloch's "irreducibility" (Wolfram's computational irreducibility; Kuhn's paradigm shift); Jiménez García's SoftModelling (seamless modelling-physics integration); UCL "Space Wires" real-time robotic fabrication.

Connections

Concepts: Discrete · Architectural Object
Authors: Mollie Claypool
Debates: (parametricism/digital-turn)
Related source notes: (related: the second digital turn and parametricism cluster)

Direct Quotes

"[T]he discrete is an architectural approach informed by mereology – or the study of part-to-whole relationships – that completely rethinks the role of the digital in architecture."

"[T]here is an ontology for architecture which enabled it to be adaptable, flexible, changeable, in real time or throughout a longer life cycle."

"[D]iscrete architecture [is] argued ... to be a more accessible, versatile, open-ended and participatory approach to architecture."

"transformation and novelty were the irreducible qualities that any theory of form would need to confront." (Sanford Kwinter, as quoted)

Open Questions

• Is the "discrete" genuinely emancipatory/open-ended, or does it remain continuous with the parametricist/neoliberal logic that Spencer and Hopkins critique — a new post-post-Fordist production paradigm?
• Does rethinking architecture's ontology via mereology alter its political-economic inscription, or only its formal/tectonic language?